10 Promises Uzumaki Naruto Couldn't Keep
by Doctor Yami
Summary: Title says it all. Rated T to be safe. Don’t like character death, don’t like NaruHina, don’t effing read.


20 Promises Uzumaki Naruto Couldn't Keep

10 Promises Uzumaki Naruto Couldn't Keep

**A/N**: Was originally gonna be 20 promises, but then I realized I couldn't come up with that many. Angsty Tragedy. NaruHina. 20 Truths format I suppose, only it's 10. I was in part inspired to write this by reading "Twenty Times Uzumaki Naruto Didn't Die", by **Kraken's Ghost. **Rated T to be safe. Don't like it when Naruto actually dies in defense of his village, don't like NaruHina, don't effing read.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, Hinata would've already confessed her feelings.

10 Promises Uzumaki Naruto Couldn't Keep

1) After the second time it happened, Uzumaki Naruto promised himself he would NOT fail the academy again. Some would say he didn't. But Naruto knows. Naruto couldn't perform a regular bunshin if his life depended on it. He knows that. He also knows that you cannot graduate from the academy unless you can successfully perform the 3 basic jutsu: Henge, Kawarimi, Bunshin. He knows that, if it weren't for Mizuki tricking him, he would never have become a genin. Because he can't perform a regular bunshin, and no one would think of teaching him a higher-level bunshin to subsitute for it. So, he smiles, he laughs, he pranks- but on the inside, he cringes, because he knows that without Mizuki, he couldn't have kept his promise.

2) Even before he knew about Kyuubi, Naruto had promised himself he would never stoop to the villagers level, would never hate them back. On the outside, it would appear he had kept that promise. On the inside, he had failed miserably. He hated them. They had made his childhood a cold, dark, and lonely hell. It angers them so much how unfairly they treat him. How they treat him like he doesn't deserve to exist. Jiraiya has concluded that the seal is weakening, and that Naruto is very brash, and that is why he can so quickly access Kyuubi's chakra. That's only half the reason. The other half, Naruto hates the villagers, and he wants to draw out Kyuubi's chakra, because he hopes that, for maybe even a moment, he'll lose control.

3) Naruto promised himself that one-day, he and Sakura would be together one day. He repeated this promise to himself every time she violently turned him down. He repeated this every time she fawned over Sasuke, although with less conviction. He stopped repeating it when she tearfully begged him to bring Sasuke back. He never forgot it. Three years later, when Hyuga Hinata admitted her feelings to him. This is one of the only promises he doesn't regret keeping.

4) When his crush and teammate begged him to bring Sasuke back, he promised he would. Naruto failed this promise, several times. It tore him up inside. He always said to himself he'd accomplish it next time. From the technical point of view, he did do it. To Naruto, to what remained of Team 7 as a whole, bringing home a corpse didn't count.

5) Naruto promised Sasuke he would do whatever it takes to bring him back to Konoha. Without fail whenever, it came down to the line, he flinched. He couldn't aim that first rasengan lower. He couldn't bring himself to use Kyuubi's chakra on him. He couldn't stop thrusting forward that last Rasenshuriken.

6) Naruto promised he would never lose any of his precious people. Not if he could help it. When Sasuke betrayed Konoha, he always had the hope of getting him back. That hoped died, scattered on the chakra enhanced, blades of wind of his Futon: Rasenshuriken. When he brought that battered corpse to Sakura, he lost another precious person. In the war to come, he would lose many more.

7) When Sasuke had "died" protecting him from Haku, Naruto promised that he would never let anyone die protecting him again. If anyone was going to die, HE would do it protecting THEM. Sai took a chidori through the heart, allowing him to drive that Rasenshuriken into Sasuke. Kakashi-sensei died taking down Konan, keeping her from him. Tsunade-baachan and Yamato-taicho died stopping Pein. This is the promise he hates himself most for failing to keep.

8) Naruto promised himself he would find out who his parents were. That he would find a grave to visit. It would be a cold day in hell before the council informed him of his heritage, and the only people who knew of his heritage and were willing, had all died before they could. He would never, in life, discover who his parents were. When he died, and he saw who was waiting for him on the other side, his screams of rage resonated throughout the Underworld.

9) Naruto finally gathered the courage to propose to Hinata, 2 full years after she revealed her feelings to him. She had said yes, then fainted. Hiashi and Neji had both then had private audiences with him. They said, in no uncertain terms, that if he ever hurt Hinata, he would not live long enough to regret it. Of all he promises, only one does he regret more being unable to keep than this.

XxXTenXxX

They were going on a mission. Head into the Akatsuki main base, and take down Uchiha Madara, or die trying. The team consisted of Rock Lee, Hyuuga Neji, Haruno Sakura, Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, and Uzumaki Naruto. Of course, the village was against sending their (grudgingly) instated Rokudaime Hokage into battle, but he was one of the only ones who could hope to stop Madara.

Hinata would've come to, but for one thing, Naruto pulled rank and wouldn't let her. For another, he had a full ANBU guard on her. For a third, she was 6 months pregnant. The team stood at the gates, ready in full ANBU battle gear, as the Rokudaime said farewell to his wife. She had kissed him, tears streaming down from her pale, pearl white eyes. She had looked him in the eye. She had said three words. "Please, don't die."

He had stared back into her eyes. He gave a cocky grin. He clasped his hands behind is head, and cocked his head to the side. She couldn't help but give a small smile at this. "Don't worry, Hina-hime. I'll come back alive. I promise."

XxXXxX

He sat there, propped up against the wall. He stared at Madara's beaten, shattered corpse. Surprisingly, the Akatsuki leader's mask, while cracked, still covered his face. The cave rumbled around them, chunks of debris and dust falling to the floor. On the far side of the cavern, that monolithic statue, which contained the power of the other 8 bijuu, shook, cracks spread across its surface, an unholy light coming from it.

He coughed up blood, and clutched his hand to the wound in his chest. It gave him a small sense of déjà vu, considering how close to his heart the fist sized hole had come. He weakly wiped blood from his face. Sakura and Shino, along with the unconscious Neji, and the corpses of Kiba and Lee, were gone, unwilling cargo of several kage bunshin and the hirashin. He was glad he had learned that. At least none of his other precious people would die.

The rumbling abruptly grew more severe. A chunk of rock the size of his torso crashed down next to him. Wouldn't be much longer till the statue blew. Considering it contained the power of 8 apocalyptic demons, it was gonna blow BIG. It didn't help that because of Madara fucking around in his mind with those damn eyes of his, Kyuubi's seal was about to shatter.

Naruto tilted his head back to gaze into the darkness that shrouded the cavern ceiling. He knew he was gonna die. Even if he got out of the blast radius of the statue, the influx of Kyuubi's chakra entering his body all at once would kill him, not to mention level his immediate vicinity into a barren wasteland. He wasn't walking out of here alive. Nothing could change that.

A hole had opened in the roof. He could see the stars. He remembered that every date he had ever had with Hinata, had ended with them laying embraced in an open field, gazing at the stars. The rumbling abruptly quieted, the statue glowing brighter than ever. He smiled sadly, keeping his gaze fixed on the stars. " Sorry Hinata-chan. I guess I can't keep my promise."

XxXEndXxX

A/N: You like? Now, to head off some possible questions, by breaking number 10, he also broke number 9. Now, go on and click that little button. The one that says "Go". Next to it, it reads "Review".


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